Author: Mariia Lepneva

Workshop “Studying Food and Japan: A Roundtable on New Research and Approaches”, March 7, 2025

Organized by the Japanese studies sector of the Department of Languages and Cultures and BOCULT – Centre for Research on Body Cultures in Motion, the workshop “Studying Food and Japan: A Roundtable on New Research and Approaches” at Ghent University will cover a range of topics related to Buddhism in Japan and include, among others, presentations by three GCBS’s researchers: Anna Andreeva, Andreas Niehaus, and Paride Stortini. The workshop will take place on March 7, 2025 at 10:00-12:00 CET in Blandijnberg 2.24.

Program:

  • Erica Baffelli (The University of Manchester)
    Sticky Rice: Foodways and Buddhist Minorities in Japan
  • Paulina Kolata (University of Copenhagen)
    Fridge Stories: Food and Buddhist Ritual Economies in Japan
  • Anna Andreeva (Ghent University)
    The Sonkeikaku Bunko Manuscript: On Dietetics for Pregnant Women in Medieval Japan
  • Andreas Niehaus (Ghent University)
    Commensality, Loneliness and Home: Food on the Move in Hayashi Fumiko’s Santō Ryokōki
  • Paride Stortini (Ghent University)
    The Original Recipe of Modernity: Calpis, Curry, and the Transnational Construction of Religion in Japan

New member: Mengqiu Tian

Mengqiu Tian is PhD candidate in Buddhist Studies within the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. Her research project “Vignettes of the Life of the Buddha at Dunhuang during the Tang and Five Dynasties“, supervised by Prof. Dr. Daniela De Simone and Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl, explores the portrayal of episodes of the Buddha’s life in the Dunhuang grottoes.

Mengqiu Tian has completed her Master study of Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens and Sinologie at Heidelberg Universität. He conducted fieldwork at Dunhuang grottoes (09, 2021) and the musée Guimet (01, 2022) funded by Heinz-Götze travel grant and was a one-year visitor of SOAS, University of London. Visited the Stein’s collection at the British Museum.

 

Guest lecture “Japanese diplomacy in the fifteenth century: Buddhist exchange and Chinese tributary ritual” by Polina Barducci, April 29, 2025

On April 29, 2025, Dr. Polina Barducci (Rikkyo University) will deliver a guest lecture titled “Japanese diplomacy in the fifteenth century: Buddhist exchange and Chinese tributary ritual” within the framework of the master-level course “Culture in Perspective: South and East Asia” organized by Dr. Mathieu Torck. The lecture will take place at 16:00–19:00 in Room 0.4 (Blandijnberg 2).

PhD defense “The Poet–Monk Taixu and His Imagery World” by Xiaoxiao Xu, January 27, 2025

On January 27, 2025, GCBS researcher Xiaoxiao Xu defended his PhD dissertation titled “The Poet–Monk Taixu and His Imagery World,” written within the framework of the joint PhD program between Ghent University (supervisor Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman) and the University of Perugia (supervisor Prof. Dr. Ester Bianchi).  The examination committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Ji Zhe (INALCO), Prof. Dr. Heng (Michael) Chen (UGent), and Dr. Mariia Lepneva (UGent).

Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947) is well-known to scholarship as an advocate of radical reforms of the Buddhist community and the author of the concept of “Buddhism of the human realm.” Xiaoxiao Xu’s dissertation revealed that, beyond these achievements, Taixu possessed yet another identity—a poet-monk. Through literature studies methodology, the author established that Taixu’s poetical creativity often went beyond presenting his religious views. Instead, the great Buddhist leader was inclined to use his verses for expressing his personal thoughts and emotions. This makes his poetry a valuable entry point for understanding his personality.

Publication highlights (Q1 20254): Two papers by GCBS members in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies

Articles from two GCBS researchers have just been published in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Volume 46 (2023). One is by Prof. Dr. Charles DiSimone, and the other by FWO postdoctoral fellow Dr. Anna Sokolova.

Abstract: In the past few years important manuscript discoveries have been uncovered in the course of the excavation of the archeological site at the ancient city of Mes Aynak in Afghanistan. This article, the first of a series, examines this new manuscript evidence providing an analysis of seven groups of manuscript fragments found at Mes Aynak consisting of only a part of the total material uncovered at the site. The fragments under the scope of this article are all copied on birch bark folios in the Gilgit/Bamiyan Type I script and date from the 6th-7th centuries of the Common Era. Works identified include witnesses of the Maitreyavyākaraṇa, Bahubuddhāvadāna verses, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, and the Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā. Several unidentified fragments are also analyzed. Transliterations are given for all fragments and reconstructions or parallels and translations are supplied for all identified works. It is hypothesized that the bundle containing the Maitreyavyākaraṇa and Bahubuddhāvadāna verses represents the first witness discovered of the heretofore lost Mūlasarvāstivāda Kṣudrakapiṭaka. The Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā fragments discussed are also of great interest, representing the first example of that work discovered within the area of Greater Gandhāra from this period, placing it among the earlier witnesses of this work discovered to date. It also appears to mark an earlier transmission of the work that differs from later, known transmissions.

Abstract :This article investigates the Buddhist projects that Wei Gao (745-805), Military Governor of Xichuan Circuit (central part of present-day Sichuan Province), undertook in the region’s capital, Chengdu, with a primary focus on three major enterprises that he launched in the final four years of his life: the renovation of a Buddhist statue; the dissemination of a vinaya commentary; and the establishment of a Buddhist monastery. These projects are explored in the local religious context of mid- to late Tang Xichuan as well as the broader political context of the imperial regime. In particular, the paper explores Wei Gao’s Buddhist enterprises against the political background of Emperor Dezong’s (r. 779-805) efforts to reassert imperial authority and strengthen court-region relations following the collapse of Tang power in the mid-eighth century.

 

 

Two GCBS researchers have been granted prestigious FWO Senior Research projects

Two GCBS researchers have been granted two prestigious 4-year FWO Senior Research projects!

(1) “Visual and Textual Narratives of Buddhist Initiation Rituals in Medieval China”

Applicants: Prof. Ann Heirman & Christoph Anderl / Researcher: Dr. Anna Sokolova

(2) “Tracing Macro-cyclical Change Through Micro-cycles in Historical Chinese”

Applicants: Prof. Anne Breitbarth & Christoph Anderl & Linda Badan / Researcher: Anni Wang

Publication highlights (Q4 2024): “Buddhakṣetrapariśodhana”, edited by Charles DiSimone and Nicholas Witkowski.

New Book Announcement: Buddhakṣetrapariśodhana: A Festschrift for Paul Harrison, edited by GCBS professor Charles DiSimone and Nicholas Witkowski.

From the publisher:

Buddhakṣetrapariśodhana is a volume in honor of the Buddhologist and Philologist, Paul M. Harrison, George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. The contributions of twenty-nine of his colleagues, students, and friends from across the globe are dedicated to his academic interests and represent a cross-section of the disciplines that have been so heavily influenced by Paul Harrison’s scholarship in the past decades: Buddhist Studies, Indology, Sinology, Tibetology, and Art History.

Prof. DiSimone’s contribution “An Illuminated Palm-leaf Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript Folio Circa 1130–60 CE” is available online.

Fieldwork of GCBS researcher Ven. Hui Wen

Venerable Hui Wen, a Phd student at GCBS, has just completed a field trip to the Mogao 莫高 caves in Dunhuang 敦煌, Gansu Province, in the framework of her research on the iconography and symbolic representations found at the center parts of the ceilings of Mogao caves. She also met the researchers of Dunhuang Academy, including her co-supervisor Prof. Neil Schmid, and worked in the academy’s library.

Hui Wen with researchers from Dunhuang, including her co-supervisor Prof. Neil Schmid (Professor at the Dunhuang Academy)
At the entrance to the Mogao cave complex (consisting of more than 500 caves with wall paintings)
Work in the Library of the Dunhuang Academy

Reading group meeting, presentation by Longyu Zhang, November 8, 2024

GCBS reading group activities began on November 8 this year. PhD student Longyu Zhang presented her preliminary reading of narrative passages from Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, with a focus on the use of modal markers in these texts. Longyu began by introducing the terminological apparatus she uses for analysing necessity, possibility, and volition. During the rest of the session, we immersed ourselves in the analysis of specific examples, narrowing down our interpretations as we got acquainted with the unfolding of the story.

New member: August Sundin

August Sundin is PhD candidate in Buddhist Studies within the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. He is a member of the project “Corpora in Greater Gandhāra. Tracing the development of Buddhist Textuality and Gilgit/Bamiyan manuscript networks in the first millennium of the common era” led by Professor Charles DiSimone.

August received his Bachelors in Buddhist Studies and Masters in Tibetan Translation from Kathmandu University in Nepal. His past research has focused on the role of cultural interpretation in Indo-Tibetan historiographical works as well as the issues of reading Indic materials in their Tibetan translations. August’s current research focuses on the application of philology and textual comparison to Buddhist manuscripts and the history of Buddhist textual networks centred in Gandhāra between the fourth and ninth centuries c.e.